


The Queen Is Riding in The Rain

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: F/M, One Shot, family fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Children don't care how muddy - or how tired - you are. They want their mother. Set about two years before the beginning of <i>Wild Magic.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Queen Is Riding in The Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Jon and Thayet's other four kids (aside from Roald and Kally), are mostly author quasi-canon.

It has been raining for _days_. Some of those she rides with are swearing it will never stop. Thayet thinks of Sarain's monsoons and shakes her head. Tortall's spring rains don't compare to those, no matter how thoroughly miserable she might be right now.

She leads the two Rider Groups through the gate and around to the barracks and stables, then dismounts. Her Riders do the same and lead exhausted mounts towards the stables, not waiting for a word from her. They're too tired and too wet. They, like she, want a bath, food, and bed.

After grooming the muck out of both ponies' coats and treating them to a hot mash, she gathers her things and heads up the hill to the palace. She is still covered in mud, still soaked to the bone, and still _cold_ when she enters the royal wing, her hair and clothing dripping on the stone floors.

Thayet opens the door to the private parlor used by her family in the evenings, at the rear of the wing, and is greeted with childrens' laughter, then cries of "_Mama!_" The children all race to her before she can speak, bowing - except for Kally, who carries little Vania in her arms. Kneeling to return their hugs, she knows she shouldn't - she should put them off until she's clean - but she doesn't care. They're _her_ children, after all. She kisses each on a cheek or forehead and with gloved, muddy hands, she lifts Vania from Kally's arms.

The elder five look up at her, delighted to see her - it's spring, it's raiding season, she shouldn't be home and they know that - and Vania only smiles at her.

"Mama, you're a _mess_," says outspoken Kalasin.

Thayet grins wearily, despite herself. "I rode thirty miles in the rain, Kally."

Kally looks properly appalled at this, for all her six years, and Jasson extends his arms to her, asking to be held. She scoops him up and kisses him, eliciting a squeal.

With Lianne clinging to her leg, Jasson held on a hip, and Vania in one arm, she sees the noise has drawn her husband's attention. Jonathan stands in the door of his study, eyebrows raised at the scene before him. Thayet realizes what he sees: his wife, hidden under a layer of muck, surrounded by children. She grins, he laughs, and she laughs with him. She's still laughing, perhaps out of exhaustion, when he takes Jasson and Vania from her arms and holds her himself, despite the state she's in.

 


End file.
